The Echo of Maybe
by Jessica237
Summary: [HC] It was days like those that she woke up with the flutter of butterflies in her stomach and the echo of maybe in her mind.


**A/N: **Wow, don't I love to jump around with the different Calleigh pairings. ;) Anyway, yeah, you read the summary right; this is Horatio/Calleigh (well, one-sided), the likes of which I've never been able to get right. And I made up a good portion of Calleigh's backstory...I figure, if TPTB feel the need to change it every three months anyway, then what's it matter if it's a little off? Heh. Written for the MiamiFicTalk prompt challenge; prompt #3 -- love. As always, nothing recognizable is mine.

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If ever there was anything Calleigh just couldn't get right, it was falling in love with the right person. 

Her first crush had been in the fourth grade. His name was Adam, and he had a knack for ending up in the principal's office at least once a day. He was the class clown and the class rebel. He was the complete opposite from sweet, innocent, teacher's pet Calleigh.

She'd gotten her first real boyfriend when she was in eleventh grade. There'd been other boys before him, but this was the first time Calleigh found herself falling hard. His name was Josh, and he'd been everything like an older version of Adam. Everybody loved him, except teachers and authority figures. Calleigh's mother hadn't been thrilled at all when Calleigh had first displayed a crush on the boy, and she was furious when she found out they were actually dating. She forbade Calleigh ever to see him again, which in turn only fueled Calleigh's want for him. She went out with him behind her mother's back for months, almost a year. It had ended only when he'd gotten himself arrested for underage DUI and vehicular homicide. He'd been sent to jail in Baton Rouge,and Calleigh never heard from him again.

In college she concentrated mainly on getting her image back, the one that she'd lost during her last two years of high school from dating Josh. Shortly after graduation, she found herself in the police academy, primed and ready to fall hard again, if not harder than before. He was just as much of a bad boy as any other guy she'd ever liked, except this time, Calleigh assumed it was okay. After all, he was in the academy with her; he couldn't be _that_ bad. His name was Jake, and he held the ability to get under her skin like no one else. And he used it to his advantage. He distracted her, enough so that he could easily take the top spot in the class that otherwise would've been hers.

But that too ended on a sour note. Jake had fallen more in love with his undercover work than with her, and she'd foolishly forced him to make that choice. It'd been the worst fight of her life, worse than any she'd ever had with her mother. With Jake, she felt like her heart was getting ripped to shreds, and then, when he'd walked out that door for the last time, she'd wanted to die. Jake had made her feel like no one else; he'd kissed her like no one else; he'd made love to her like no one else. Watching him go, knowing he'd chosen his work over her; it hurt. It tore her to pieces, leaving her feeling like no one could ever make her feel whole again.

Until the day that _he_ came to her.

It was just like something out of her dreams; it was as though she'd seen this day coming since she was a little girl.

Despite her obvious lust by day for the bad boys, by night Calleigh dreamed of something more. Love; true in every sense of the word, nothing held back, real love.

During those long, sticky nights back in Louisiana, she'd lie awake for hours at a time, before her daydreams would slip into the dreams of sleep, bringing with them illusions of that powerful emotion.

It was those illusions that she clung to when it seemed everything in her life around her was falling apart. As a little girl, she'd retreat into her room, or out to her special place in the meadow not too far away when it just wouldn't do to stay in her house. Those illusions of love kept her from giving up, from running away. As a child, Calleigh held onto the fairytale of love, maybe not believing, after all, it was hard to believe in anything considering the situation she'd grown up in, but certainly hoping for her own prince to come and lift her up from this place.

It was when she'd lost almost all of that hope that she actually began to believe.

It was a Monday, hot and sticky, just like any other Louisiana summer day. Even inside the lab it was sweltering, and Calleigh, usually used to this kind of heat, felt smothered. Smothered by the heat, her caseload, the endless weight of stress on her shoulders. Lazily, she'd pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail, trying to keep the long blonde locks away from her flushed face. It wasn't helping much; tendrils continuously slipped out of the rubber band, as though taunting her.

By chance she happened to glance up, and her breath caught in her throat. She'd never believed in love at first sight, but now, it was fairly hard to deny it with the way her heart raced in her chest, the way her head suddenly began to spin.

And then he'd looked through the window, and Calleigh thought she might melt when he smiled at her. Her stomach was in knots, but she managed to nod and return his smile. Sure that her face was flushed even more now, she lowered her gaze and went back to work.

She never expected her boss to lead him through the door to her lab. Her pen fell through her fingers, the sound of it hitting the table not even registering to her ears. Her eyes didn't even register her boss's presence in the lab. Her eyes were on him and him alone.

He stood with a confidence she'd never seen before in a life of second-guessing herself and others. The calm that he projected was immense; the parts of her that weren't jumping from his presence were more relaxed than ever. The only sign of nervousness was in his hands, his fingers absently fidgeting with a pair of sunglasses, though Calleigh wondered if that was more habit than actual nervousness. The man looked like nothing could ever faze him.

And then she looked into his eyes and lost herself.

Never had she seen eyes so blue, so intense. Calleigh felt as though he could see right through her, right down to her newly awakened heart and soul, but for once, feeling like that didn't bother her. They hadn't even traded words, and yet Calleigh knew that for whatever he asked, she'd give it.

She barely heard her boss introduce him; she was still trying to find her way back to earth. "Calleigh, this is Lieutenant Caine. He's with the Miami-Dade Crime Lab." Calleigh nodded absently, and just as the first words from her boss had been almost unheard, the next he spoke echoed loudly in her mind. "He's come to try and steal you away from us."

The stranger chuckled, a low rumbling from deep in his throat that sent a shiver down Calleigh's spine. "Now Greg," he addressed her boss, and Calleigh felt that shiver from her spine encompass every inch of her body just from hearing his voice, "I would never _steal_ her away from you."

It was then that he turned his attention fully on Calleigh, giving her a smile that made his ice blue eyes sparkle warmly. "I've heard a lot about you, Calleigh. It's good to finally meet you," he said, extending a hand to her.

Calleigh nodded, extending her own shaky hand out to his. "And you, Lieutenant," she breathed, startled at the spark that shot through her body from just a simple handshake.

He chuckled again, and Calleigh felt the entire room around her disappear, leaving her in a world holding only the two of them. "Please, Calleigh, call me Horatio. Now, I hear you're quite the ballistics expert…"

As a child, she'd dreamed of the day her fairytale prince would come and take her away. She thought with Horatio, she'd found that prince. She'd followed him to Miami, taking the job at his lab in a heartbeat.

But once more, her unwanted talent of falling for the wrong person made itself known. She lived for the easy friendship they'd developed, the flirty banter that had sparked from it. But to him, flirting seemed to be all it was. For the first time in her life, Calleigh had fallen for someone who wouldn't break her, who wouldn't lead her along the path to destruction. But in falling for someone who would be good for her, there was an even more intense pain; a pain worse than what she'd felt when Adam had been suspended from school, worse than what she'd felt when Josh had been arrested, worse than what she'd felt when Jake had walked out the door for the very last time.

The pain of love unrequited.

And it only seemed to get more intense with each day that went by. Still, six years later, she held onto the hope that she'd grasped onto when he'd came to her in Louisiana.

It was days like Valentine's Day, her birthday, her anniversary of joining the Miami Dade Crime Lab -- days like those that she woke up with the flutter of butterflies in her stomach and the echo of maybe in her mind.

But those so-called special days came to pass just as any other day, and in the end, Calleigh always had to endure the long drive home alone, accompanied only by her once-more broken heart and a basket of shattered expectations.

Growing up in a home where love wasn't the most commonly shared emotion, Calleigh had often dreamed about falling in love. But if this was how love was supposed to feel, then she didn't want anything to do with it.

She'd been trying to find a way out of it for years.

But as days went by, it was looking more and more like her mind had no choice in the matter. Her heart was gone. Her heart was his forevermore.

And he didn't even realize it.


End file.
